1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to a voting system having an image recording device attached to one side of a voting machine that maintains secure voting election data information.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, voting systems including a printing device are described as including a standard printer. The printer may be located either in the vicinity of the voting machine, locked within the voting machine, or integrated with the voting machine. However, various disadvantages are associated with such conventional voting systems. For example, in many countries a printed audit trail, such as a paper copy of the cast ballots, is required by law. Such a printed audit trail can be necessary in the case where a manual re-count of the votes is called for at a future date. The term printed audit trail describes a printed paper receipt summary of the candidates for whom a voter has voted, and thus can provide a hard copy of an election. For example, in the United States, when votes are being re-counted the paper ballots are taken out of storage and viewed by two poll workers, each of whom record the vote before the new results are tallied. As a result, it is important that the paper ballot or printed audit trail is an accurate representation of the each vote cast, and that the ballot has not been altered or tampered with.
Visibility is another disadvantage suffered by conventional voting systems. For example, conventional voting systems do not allow a voter to see the printed audit trail, and consequently the voter may not be given a high level of confidence that the voting system accurately recorded their vote. Further, in some conventional voting systems having printers, the voter can see the printed audit trail, but only after the voter has cast their vote. In this case, a voter must remember the candidates that they had previously voted for, which may be difficult in situations where there are a large number of candidates to choose from, a number of positions to elect candidates for, or voters participating in several elections at once.
Another significant disadvantage of the conventional voting systems is security. For example, in conventional voting systems, a voter can access the printed audit trail, and therefore could also alter or tamper with the printed audit trail. For example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0006282 there is disclosed Systems and Methods for Electronic Voting showing a basic structure for a plurality of voting modules connected to each other through a network. However, as is evident, the invention fails to provide any device that provides security to the various parts of its system to ensure that the printed audit trail is not tampered with. All of the subject matter of the above application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.